The present invention generally relates to hand-held computing device technologies and, more particularly, to the methods and systems for input control and management.
Smart phones and other hand-held computing devices integrate many functions into a single device. For example, a modern hand-held computing device often provides two-way, full text messaging to its user and permits the user to initiate messages and to respond to messages in a timely fashion and with text entirely created by the user. In order to keep the form factor of the hand-held computing device small enough to be worn on the body of the user, such as with a belt clip or in a pocket, the input device (e.g., a keyboard) of the hand-held computing device is generally configured to be small, to have a minimal number of keys, and to be optimized for using a minimal number of key strokes.
Further, the hand-held computing device also permits a user to enter a variety of types of data into the hand-held computing device, such as an address book, a calendar, a task list, an email message or a similar text file that requires user-generated or input data. Thus, although the keyboard only has a minimal number of keys, the keyboard needs to be configured with the keys representing the alphabet generally placed in the same order as they would appear on a standard keyboard, such as the QWERTY keyboard.
These competing requirements may cause inconveniences or difficulties for the user to input data into the hand-held computing device. The disclosed methods and systems are directed to solve the problems set forth above and other problems.